The continuing influx of Cubans has triggered Cayman’s mass migration contingency plan, paving the way for the use of the Elliott Conolly Civic Centre in Gun Bay, East End, to temporarily house individuals arriving on local shores, Customs and Border Control Director Charles Clifford has said.
It comes as CBC confirmed that six men and one woman arrived on a vessel on Thursday morning in Cayman Brac.
The seven disembarked the vessel and are being processed in accordance with CBC’s established protocols, according to a press release from the service.
Clifford, in a statement on 11 May, said 23 people were already being housed at the East End centre after the CBC Detention Centre reached capacity, which activated the contingency plan.
“It was necessary to activate the temporary housing plan and, with the assistance of Hazard Management Cayman Islands, the Elliott Conolly Civic Centre has been set up to temporarily house some of the migrants while alternative accommodation for migrants is established,” Clifford said.
The Elliott Conolly Civic Centre is one of four civic centres listed in the contingency plan as supplemental short-term accommodation for people arriving illegally in Cayman.
The last time the centre was used for such accommodation was in May 2019 when Cayman saw a spike in illegal landings.
East End MP Isaac Rankine, in a statement on his official Facebook page, said he had been in discussion with Clifford on the use of the centre, and CBC “is working diligently to ensure that other accommodation options are explored and that migrants are processed efficiently and effectively [under the] law”.
He pointed out that Clifford did acknowledge that the centre is primarily used as an emergency shelter which, he assured, “remains at the forefront of his mind”.
A further statement with an update would be provided in due course, he added in his post.
The CBC statement said that the Mass Migration Committee met on 11 May to progress plans for alternative accommodation “which will alleviate the need to use any of the Civic Centres listed as additional accommodation under the plan”.
Over the last month, there has been a consistent flow of Cubans arriving by boat in Cayman, many of whom landed or were intercepted in Cayman Brac waters.
The CBC said 37 of them recently had been transferred from Cayman Brac to Grand Cayman due to insufficient resources in the Brac to effectively manage that number of arrivals.
“The Mass Migration Committee continues to meet regularly as required to discuss and address any migrant-related concerns,” the CBC statement noted.
A CBC spokesperson, responding to questions from the Compass last month on whether all Cubans arriving on the boats were being detained in CBC facilities, said some had been released into the community. While in the past, some Cuban arrivals had been required to wear ankle monitors, the spokesperson said none of those released into the community had been fitted with the devices.
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